


Ataraxy

by machidesuyo



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Developing Friendships, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Rule 63 Athena
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23015173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/machidesuyo/pseuds/machidesuyo
Summary: The god of wisdom and his relationship with the god of fire.AU where Athena is a male and the golden net incident never happened.
Relationships: Athena/Hephaestus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	Ataraxy

As someone who was born an adult, Athena had never suffered the trials and tribulations that Hera sent onto his half-siblings’ childhoods. From the moment he was born, Zeus had given him everything, including a seat among the Olympians and the respect that comes with it.

His alter-ego, on the other hand, hadn’t been as fortunate.

Created out of jealousy by his mother, then thrown out a mountain the second he was born. When he came back to reclaim his birthright, the first thing that he earns is ridicule.

Hephaestus’ life had been riddled with unfortunate moments the moment it started, and it was just the beginning of it.

Athena had abstained himself from partaking in any ridicule and gossip towards the smith god, but he couldn’t help himself but agree with some of them. Hera may be a bit harsh on him, but if he hadn’t been coaxed to free her from her throne, she’d be spending the rest of her immortal life stuck to a chair as her sanity tears away each passing day.

And what did he expect when he asked for Aphrodite’s hand in marriage?

She refused to stay with just one man or woman, not even to the “love of her life” Ares. Each affair was another rock on the mountain of stress that has piled up on the blacksmith.

He didn’t know what it was that made him approach the god and reach his hand out to him, in a way that was so much more than just stealing glances and small greetings.

Perhaps it was when Hephaestus had collapsed in the hallway of Olympus from his lack of sleep, or when he stayed up for days to finish brandishing the Aegis or one of Athena’s many spears, or simply when he witnessed the god struggling with his crutches.

It was no use reminiscing in the past, but whatever he did to start this friendship, he was forever grateful.

<><><>

If Hephaestus could have any other sacred animals other than a donkey, Athena liked to think that it’d be a bear, after all, they both act alike. Hephaestus would barely ever go outside for anything other than the Olympian council meetings, just like a bear during winter. He’d always pour himself into the art of metallurgy, whether it was for work or his passion.

When he shared his thoughts with the blacksmith, he shook his head and laughed.

“Bears are way too cute to be compared to me,” he said.

Athena pat his head and ruffled his already messy hair, “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re pretty cute yourself.”

“Athena, we might need to go to Apollo to get your eyes checked!”

They both continued to laugh. At first, he had kept visiting Hephaestus’ forge because he wanted Hephaestus to take breaks from constantly pushing himself. He had thought it’d be a great way to politely distract him, they needed to be close enough so that Athena’s words could get through his stubbornness.

“You know, Lord Athena,” Hephaestus leaned in towards the warrior, “When I first came here, I thought you were scary as Tartarus.”

“Oh, yeah?” he leaned in as well.

“And when you always keep staring at me, I thought you were planning to kill me!” The forge god laughed, but Athena stiffened. Was his staring really that obvious? He wonders if other deities have noticed this too.

“But now that I got to know you, I realized you’re a pretty cool guy!” Hephaestus beamed, “I’m glad that we got to know each other.”

The god of wisdom smiled, unknowingly unaware of something in him that is slowly awakening.

“Me too,”

<><><>  
  


His spear would be finished by the morning, was what Hephaestus had said, but Athena knows that it’d be done by midnight at the pace he’s working at.

The frustration and anger he felt couldn’t be described when he saw the light coming from the window of the forge as he walked home from a campaign.

He didn’t care if his armor was still soaked in blood, or if his legs wanted to give away from the strain.

He froze when he heard a painful howl, barely masked by a terrifying whirring sound. He never felt more panic than ever as the smell of blood became more prevalent.

“Hephaestus!” he banged on the door, “Are you in there!”

  
Athena wouldn’t spare another second. He crashed through the door broke it down. There he saw his friend, lying on the floor breathing heavily as a pool of blood formed on his leg—No, the stump of his thigh that was left from whatever happened. His lame leg was on the other side of the room, presumably cut off by the blood-soaked contraption he held in his hand.

“Hephaestus!” Athena immediately rushed to his side. He tore his cape and tied it to Hephaestus’ stump to stop the bleeding, earning a groan from the smith god.

“Did you do this to yourself?!” He shouted as he saw the god slowly losing consciousness.

“A….thena…,”

“Hush, save your energy for later,” he whispered softly as he hoisted him up, “You’re safe, now. I’ll take you to Apollo.”

<><><>

A constantly anxious mother hen would perfectly describe Athena at the moment. Under Apollo’s orders, Hephaestus must stay in bed and not strain himself too much for his leg to heal properly. Athena had taken it up for himself to nurse the smith in his palace, so he can keep a close eye on him, as he is one of the few who knows of Hephaestus’ unhealthy work ethic and work environment.

Although Apollo raised his brow at Athena’s offer, he trusted the god to keep the smith in check. 

A lavish guest room, his blueprints, and his stationary, those were the things given to Hephaestus when his rest began. Of course, barely anyone had visited him, but he never expected any in the first place. What he didn’t expect, however, was how attentive Athena had been. 

He was there at almost every second of the day, excluding when he had to attend campaigns, his devotees, and the council meetings. He would always listen to the wild ideas Hephaestus had proposed, from a bird-like structure as an alternative to their flying chariots, to machines that could be used to duplicate texts at a faster rate than writing. 

As Athena peeled an apple, he took a glance at the blueprint Hephaestus was making. It wasn’t something grandiose like usual but rather a simple sketch of a prosthetic leg.

“Tell me something, Heph,” The god called out, “Did you cut your leg off so you could build a new one?”

“Heavens, no!” Hephaestus piped up, “I’d never!”

“Then why?”

The sudden change of atmosphere shook Hephaestus a bit. Although the god was known for his serious personality, it felt like Hephaestus was being interrogated with a blade up against his neck.

“Oh, gosh,” His bottom lip quivered through his smile, “P-Promise you won’t get angry?”

Athena only nodded, “I’m sorry, I was just concerned for you.”

Hephaestus sighed, “I think I’m going to divorce Aphrodite.”

He clenched his fist hard, drawing blood from the apple knife he held. He couldn’t hold in his anger anymore, “What did she do this time?”

“It’s not just her,” Hephaestus tried holding in a couple of his tears, “She and Ares keeps breaking into my office. They think it’s funny when they fuck on the desk or my bed. I barely get any sleep because I have to redraw my blueprints over and over again.

“And I keep hearing what everybody says about me from them,” he sniffed, “About how unmarriageable I am, or how greedy I am for marrying Aphrodite so I can get access to her copper mines in her Georgian territory, or how pathetic my leg is.

“So I decided I didn’t want my leg anymore!” He felt his tears falling off his face, “It wasn’t good for anything anyways, but damn it hurt like hell when I chopped it off with that chainsaw!”

His laughter trailed off, ending off with a quiet whimper as he wiped off his tears, “I’m sorry, I must’ve been so selfish lately. I’m taking Lord Athena’s hospitality for granted.”

A embrace followed suite, the smith had never felt such warmth since his childhood days with Thetis. He swore his tears fell harder when he felt his head being rubbed softly by the god of wisdom.

“Please don’t hurt yourself like this, it breaks my heart to see you suffer,” Athena’s voice was as smooth as silk, “You can confide in me as much as I want, so you don’t have to put all this weight on yourself.”

Athena felt the back of his chiton being gripped, his shoulder getting wetter and wetter, “Lord Athena, you are too kind.”

“Hephaestus, please,” he whispered softly, unaware that he pulled the smith closer, “Just call me Athena.”

<><><>

It wasn’t a secret that Hera’s children, other than Hephaestus of course, were not so fond of Athena. He was, after all, the catalyst that caused the drift and wreckage that is the marriage between Hera and Zeus.

Coincidentally, they were the first to notice the deepening friendship between the two gods. They knew of how fiercely overprotective and attentive Athena was during Hephaestus’ treatment, and how he always had a free hand for Hephaestus to latch onto when he was still struggling with adapting to a new prosthetic leg.

It was sweet, innocent Hebe who confronted Athena about it. The charming cupbearer, as pure as a lily. It was at that moment where Athena learnt that even delicate flowers could have tongues sharper than Hephaestus’ blades.

“Do you think you have anyone fooled?” an obviously fake tone accompanied by an obviously fake smile, oozing insincere kindness, “It seems that Father overestimated your wisdom.”

“Come again?” he decided to play along, purposefully agitating the goddess, “I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

“Don’t play dumb,” Hebe snapped, “I know what you’re trying to do with Hephaestus. Whatever it is, it won’t work. You should know how despicable you are, taking advantage of a disabled for your own wants, when you’re not even willing to defend him from all the gossip he’s getting.”  
The god scoffed at the cupbearer, “And what makes you the right person to say that to me? You, who never bothered to get to know your own blood-brother and merely stand in the sidelines, you who was never there for him when his own brother kept pushing him to the brink of exhaustion, you who was never by his side when he was undergoing recovery. I’ll tell you this now—“

He leaned in to Hebe’s ear, “—You don’t know a thing about me or Hephaestus. It’s best you don’t make assumptions before know the full story, you naïve fool.”

He raised his head to look down upon the goddess, who glared at him. Athena dismissed the cupbearer and walked past her.

“I don’t need to know the full story to make assumptions,” she stated as he walked away from her, “After all, not even Father gets to see the smile that you wear whenever you’re with my brother.”

<><><>

Athena hates the sea more than anything. She hates almost everything about it, from its deities, its titans and the flora and fauna that inhabits it.

The pain was unimaginable when he found out that Hephaestus was infatuated with a _sea nymph_.  
He didn’t know why he was even this angry, he was just his friend after all. But the pain drove him mad. He wanted to tear out his own heart and mutilate it until it was nothing but a bloody pulp of a mess.

Fortunately—unfortunately—Hades claimed her soul when she gave birth to his children.

He never wanted to see his friend in distraught, he wanted to be there for him no matter what, but he couldn’t help but feel a sense of victory at the news of the nymph’s death.

Hephaestus, however, was strangely nonchalant. He cradled the demigod in his arms, not a trace of sorrow for the child’s mother.

“It was bound to happen,” he responded when asked the questions, “I was going to outlive her one way or another.”

The smith smiled at his child as he approached Athena, “This is my youngest. He’ll be joining the rest of the Cabeiri in the underworld. It’s for the best, the underworld has many domains open for new gods and goddesses, and I’d be too busy to care for him.”

With that damned smile, he asked, “Would you like to hold him?”

Athena nodded absentmindedly, only realizing what Hebe’s words had meant now. His fingers brushed against Hephaestus’ as he held the young demigod.

Athena looked at the sleeping child as if he were his own. If the child was awake, he’d tell him that he’d shed his own blood for his father and cherish him for the sake of the nymph and his children.

Even if the Hephaestus wouldn’t do the same for him, he’d gladly do so, for the sake of his—


End file.
